Archive for September, 2011

This is another of my mom’s favorite poultry recipes. In fact, she makes it so often, it has become a signature dish. The recipe originally came from a cookbook from the Touro synagogue.

A sweet and sour recipe that is a snap to put together, it always gets raves. It is particularly useful for Shabbos and Yom Tov entertaining because it can be served at room temperature–no worrying about heating it up (and it drying out).

If I serve it warm, I like to cook down the gravy to concentrate it, and I serve the gravy on the side.

My mother has been making this for a really, really long time. It is easy, freezes well, and never fails to please. Simple enough for a family dinner, but special enough for any occasion. When my mom wants to make this more special, she uses cornish hens and adds orange slices or mandarin oranges as a garnish.

The idea is that you roast the chicken a little, to give the chicken skin a chance to crisp and brown just a little bit, and then you add the orange glaze. The chicken juices mix with the orange glaze to make a thick gravy that is excellent over rice.

(And I have also used this as a sauce for fried tofu, in case you want the vegetarian version.)

My children had just learned about leeks and were very excited to see two large bunches in the kitchen. They had been told that it was used for making leek and potato soup, and they really wanted me to make that.

My husband is quite particular about meatballs–the texture has to be just so. I found this recipe on the blog from Park East butchers and it is a winner. The sauce is not overpoweringly sweet and sour and the meatballs have a texture that is neither too firm nor too mushy. I didn’t measure the chili sauce. I might have used slightly less than the recipe specifies, I will have to figure that out. (update: I used 3 1/2 ounces, which is only very slightly less what the recipe calls for)

I used some meshaper afiya in the meatballs–I think that it helps the meatballs stay moist, but I’m not sure if it really makes a difference.

This is my holiday pumpkin pie, but with a new crust made with coconut oil and orange juice. The filling, too, has orange juice. You can swap out rice milk or soy milk or even coconut milk.

For the above crust I used 1 cup of flour, 4 Tbl. coconut oil, and 3 Tbl. orange juice. The crust was a bit skimpy–I had to roll it very thinly and even then didn’t really have enough dough to make a nice fluted edge. So, the below recipe adjusts upward to use 1 1/2 cups flour, 6 Tbl. oil and 4 Tbl. liquid.